A ruthless carjacker shot dead a Texas father — then left his victim’s 2-year-old son to die in 94-degree temperatures in the stolen SUV, according to cops.
Bolanle Fadairo, 38, was charged with two counts of murder for gunning down the dad Tuesday afternoon and then abandoning the toddler, who was found dead more than five hours later, Houston police said Thursday.
The callous killer appears to have met the 38-year-old dad — named by relatives as Michael Essien, who welcomed another child just a week ago — and shot him dead after an argument, police Executive Assistant Chief Larry Satterwhite said.
Fadairo then fled at 1:46 p.m. in his victim’s Chevrolet Traverse with the 2-year-old inside, Satterwhite said.
However, police had no idea until the boy’s mom called 911 nearly five hours later to report her husband and son missing, the chief said.
“We never knew about the child until she called at 6:36 p.m.,” he said.
The “specific information” she gave about the swiped SUV helped officers quickly find it where it had been abandoned.
“Sadly, it was too late. The child had passed in the car,” Satterwhite said of the toddler, IDed by family as Micah Essien.
The cause of death was not yet confirmed, the police chief said, while speculating that it could be “something like heat exhaustion.” Temps hit 94 degrees in Houston that afternoon.
Satterwhite said officers had already been searching for the stolen vehicle but had been thwarted by “very vague information” on it before the 911 call by the wife and mother of the victims.
“Nobody wishes more than me that we’d had more [information] then and we could have found this child in time,” the top cop said.
Fadairo was busted in the early hours Wednesday after police released surveillance footage of the killer strolling around a gas station just before the double murder.
Satterwhite asked Houston to “pray for this family,” saying, “A mother lost her husband and she lost her 2-year-old child.”
Essien also left behind two other children, including a baby born just a week ago, relatives told KHOU.
The grieving widow is “hanging on,” a cousin, Etimbuk Isaiah, told the outlet.
“It’s a difficult thing to process right now and so tragic because nobody wakes up planning to die.”
The dead man’s sister, Jessie Okon, sobbed to reporters about the loss of her “peaceful” brother and her “always cheerful” nephew.
“Tell Houston, tell the whole world that I want my nephew back. He’s only 2 years old. He does not know how to hurt a fly,” she said of little Micah.
As for the killer, she said, “Mostly for my nephew, God will give him his reward.”
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